Grimmfest 2016 line-up has awesome horrors and special guests

Halloween inches closer, and the UK’s horror festivals are preparing to celebrate every horror fan’s favourite time of year. This year’s Grimmfest in Manchester has a fantastic line-up, from Southern Gothic to Nordic Noir, with some ace special guests.

Running from 6-9 October at the Odeon Printworks in Manchester, Grimmfest is bringing some of the best new genre cinema from around the world, and you’re going to want to check out their selection.

Kicking off with Rob Zombie’s brutal killer clown horror 31, there’s also Marilyn Manson-starring Let Me Make You A Martyr (described as a metaphysical country noir…nice), Southern Gothic FrightFest opener My Father Die, starring Joe Anderson as a deaf man out for revenge on his father, and Trash Fire, the latest movie from Excision writer-director Richard Bates Jr, which we can’t wait to see.

British psychological drama Broken will be there to put you through the emotional wringer, while the sharp, nifty thriller Pet boasts an excellent performance from Dominic Monaghan and is definitely worth putting aside any concerns you might have over the “imprisoned woman” scenario for. There’s more British horror with “Jurassic Park with zombies” The Rezort, which brings some good social commentary to its undead safari, and Ben Parker’s claustrophobic The Chamberstrands four people in a broken submarine on the ocean floor.

We are huge fans of Australian chiller Observance, about a PI who starts to lose his mind on a stakeout, and we urge you to see it. We’d also recommend Mickey Keating’s Darling, a stylish tribute to 70s era Polanski with a great central performance from Lauren Ashley Carter as a woman going mad in a possibly-haunted New York mansion. There’s the UK premiere of The Unseen, a nicely grim spin on The Invisible Man story, and Tonight She Comes promises some retro slasher fun and an excellent title.

Jackson Stewart’s Beyond The Gates is a hugely entertaining slice of retro goodness, as a haunted VHS adventure game offers two brothers the chance to find their missing dad. Adam Rifkin’s Director’s Cut is a funny, none-more-meta satire, with Penn Jillette starring as a crowdfunder-turned-filmmaker with some serious mental health issues, and we *love* mumblecore horror comedy Another Evil, which stars Togetherness‘ Steve Zissis as an artist who gets more than he bargains for when he brings in an exorcist to rid his house of the resident spirits.

Korean epic Train To Busan will bring the zombie chaos, while Taiwanese chiller The Tag-Along features a ghost feeding on the fears and doubts of the living. The zombie apocalypse is witnessed from the shuttered windows of a suburban neighbourhood in Danish horror What We Become, while Norwegian horror Villmark Asylum pits a hazardous waste disposal team against a building with ancient evil secrets…

There are also screenings of restored classics The Hills Have Eyes and The Burning, both of which should slay on the big screen, and this year’s special guest is the great Ken Foree! The star of Dawn Of The Dead, From Beyond and The Devil’s Rejects will talk about his awesome career and introduce a screening of his new film The Rift, which the festival describes as “a heady, head-scratching combination of TWILIGHT-ZONE-style time paradox, haunted house horror, metaphysical parable, and axe-swinging mayhem.” We’re definitely up for that!